Reprogram the Auto-Lock Feature?
 

I wish I could. Here's the deal (it happens at least once a week): I'm walking toward the back of my car with my arms full. With one hand I awkwardly fumble my keys out of my pocket and use the remote fob to pop the trunk so I can put my bags in it. Now, I don't want to have to take out the keys again, so at the same time I unlock the driver's door by hitting the correct button on the fob.

I pull open the trunk lid and put my stuff inside the trunk. I spend a few seconds getting everything in place, nice and tidy, then grab the lid from the inside (so as not to scratch the paint), give it a quick pull down, deftly extract my hand to avoid crushing it, watch it close, then walk toward the driver's door.

Just as I approach the door, I hear it lock itself, as it's programmed to do after a certain time. I pull the handle anyway, and sure enough it's locked. I sigh (or swear) pull out my keys, and unlock the door again. I get in and drive off, a little ticked off, and promise myself to post this thread. I forget by the next time I'm on-line, and of course the whole thing happens again the next day, or the next week.

So now I'm finally remembering to say: Can't Mazda engineers PLEASE reprogram the freakin' auto-lock feature so that it doesn't start counting down until AFTER the trunk is closed? I know the alarm system knows when the trunk lid is open, because it won't arm if it is.

It's not too much to ask, is it? How hard could it be?

There. I feel better. Slightly.

(And a related question: If the doors are already unlocked and you use the fob to "unlock" them, does the auto-lock feature start counting down, or do the doors remain unlocked indefinitely? I may have to try it and find out, just because I'm curious.)

Used to go through the same ordeal once a week myself when I got the car :) Now, I don't even bother opening the door before the trunk is closed back... but on the bright side, the arms are now free... to operate the remote for the door :)

No- the damn thing then locks them after the count down... which is my biggest pet peeve. In the morning I sometimes hit the unlock button blindly instead of the trunk pop... so by the time I'm done putting my laptop in the trunk and waiting for the dog to do his business, the car (which was previously unlocked) is now locked when I'm ready to get into it.

I agree this is bloody annoying but have grown to accept it as one of the 8's irritating features. :(

I don't have an 8 yet (soon), but my current car does the same thing. I found that if I press the unlock button after 15 or 20 seconds at the trunk, it resets the timer back to 30 seconds. As far as having to get the keys out "again", I find that I need them to drive, so having them available to open the door after I open the trunk (even if the timer has reset the doorlocks), it's not much of a problem.

My biggest fear is that I absent-mindedly put the keys in the trunk with the groceries, close it, and then don't get to the door within 30 seconds of opening the trunk. Presto! The keys are locked in the trunk. This only happened once when I first owned my current car. I was used to having one that let me do my own thinking when it came to locking and unlocking doors.

I'd be happy if there was on override that allowed this autolock "feature" to be disabled.

I agree with everything you said, Fred (hey, that rhymes!). As to your first comment, the only thing is, it's one thing to have my keys out to drive, but somehow, illogically, it's another to have to manipulate the key fob twice, and figure out which button to push, twice. Go figure. I also hate having the door lock right as I'm reaching for it.

People are starving and dying the world over, and I'm worried about having to press a button twice. I guess I'm just the kind of person who sees a nice design with one or two obvious, if minor, "mistakes," and it really bugs me, like having dirt in my eye.

I have yet to lock the keys in the trunk, but it most likely will happen. I need to figure out a good place for a hide-a-key, although further discussing same on a public forum may not be a brilliant idea.

a minor irritant perhaps, but i look at all the wonderful things about my 8 and this really doesn't bother me that much. If you look hard enough you can find flaws in every single car out there.

As Morrissey said "Why pamper life's complexities when the leather won't smooth on the passenger seat?"

Yes, yes, indeed. Besides pointless venting, my only real point is, if the engineers are reading this thread, they might want to revise the firmware slightly or change the subsequent cars to include this feature. Never hurts to fine-tune the details.

Why would this be an annoyance since you have to have the fob in your hand (key to start car on the ring) anyway. Do you all get in your cars before taking out your keys? I find it an annoyance to remove keys from my pocket while sitting down more so then maybe the door re-locking.

It's a good question, and one that I asked myself even as I started this thread, but read the whole thread and you'll see that I have already given my response to it. Maybe it's not the greatest response in the world, but somehow it stills bugs me to fumble around with the remote buttons twice when once should suffice.

More annoying perhaps is hearing the car lock itself just as I'm reaching for the door handle.

Again, this is not a big deal at all. I just think that since the engineers seem to be tinkering with the firmware anyway, they could make this minor tweak while they're at it.

I agree. Having some user-settable options would be nice.

I just replaced it with a compustar and added remote start.... no more pesky problems =).

Consumer Reports will mark that against the car and label the car as "unreliable" :rolleyes:

Audis let you do this. you can get a tool (or find someone who has one) and put in all sorts of codes to open windows when you unlock, adjust delays, etc. It's just software, so theoretically you can change it the way we do PCMs...unless the software is hard wired into the security system and not upgradable.

More annoying perhaps is hearing the car lock itself just as I'm reaching for the door handle.

LOL, I know that would tick me off too…it’s as if the 8 is teasing you, I guess it has a sense of humor.

Consumer Reports will mark that against the car and label the car as "unreliable"

LOL…good one


It’s a good thing, for us forgetful people, that this feature exists but it should know that until the trunk is closed it does not start counting down. I think what it does is that it does not know that you are coming back, but thinks that you came out of your car and got something from the trunk…as you walked away to where ever you were going. It’s trying to lock the doors just in case you forget to…it’s the dummies way to protect the dummy…end result, annoying tech…LOL

Send a letter to Mazda maybe they will do something about it

like having dirt in your eye (and being a huge smith's fan), this is a smith's lyric and it's, "runs smooth on the passenger seat"

You must a young guy. Us old farts grew up on cars without remotes, you had to key the trunk and doors manually.

Notice that if you use the rmote to unlock the door and then open the door and shut it, then it does not autolock?